Fox and the Hound
by SasukeMOS
Summary: Hinata decides that she's tired of the way that Kiba treats Naruto and makes him promise that he'll start acting nicer to him. Kiba had no idea that being nice had such repurcussions. Pair: KibaNaru Rated T To be safe.


Authors Note: All right, first of all, if you're going to complain about me having a yaoi fic, don't even bother. Secondly, I hope anyone reading this enjoys it, and that it doesn't turn into crap like my other fics did. Anyway, enjoy.

Chapter 1

Damn that kid. He was always loud, always irritating and always inflating his own ego by saying that he would become better than everyone else. If you have no idea who I'm talking about, then you're obviously deaf. Uzumaki Naruto; the noisiest ninja you will ever meet, and I swear every second word that comes out of his mouth is 'Hokage.' If it weren't for kids like him, I would've managed to fit in a decent nap every now and then in class. Everyone kept saying that I shouldn't speak when I say he's an annoying loudmouth, but that's exactly what he was; loud, annoying and stupid. As far as I know, I was only one of those things. Hinata didn't much approve of my badmouthing Naruto, but I couldn't help it. The sight of that kid made me want to punch him in the face. It makes me wonder why I'm in the situation I'm in now. If I hated him so much, why did it end up like this?

"… just… until… Hokage!" My head jerked up suddenly and my eyes snapped open. Akamaru let out an agitated growl and covered his ears, trying to drown out the sound. My head whipped around, looking for the source of the noise. Eventually my narrowed pupils came to rest on the only individual who would be stupid enough to proclaim himself the strongest when he was obviously the worst in the class.

Iruka-sensei didn't seem at all pleased that Naruto was making such as ass of himself either. His voice was stern and authoritative as he spoke to the flamboyant idiot. "Naruto, you're not even going to become a Chuunin if you don't straighten up and become a better student."

Naruto let out a huff and crossed his arms. The top student and biggest jackass, Sasuke, let out a snide remark under his breath so that only Naruto could hear. Naruto turned in his direction and pointed a finger at his superior, yelling once again at the top of his lungs. "What the hell was that! You low class amateur, I'll show you!" He began to roll up his sleeves, then made a jump at the Uchiha, before getting dragged back down, landing on his ass.

"Naruto!" Iruka yelled. "How many times do I have to tell you not to pick fights in class?"

Now, it might just have been me, but Iruka seemed to be developing a twitch in his left eye and that didn't mean anything good for Naruto. The young ninja was at the mercy of his teacher, and he must have crossed the line at least seven times now. A look washed over Iruka's face, one that he only got when he was about to dish out some serious punishment for Naruto. Sort of like a father punishing his son…

"Naruto," began Iruka, "you're going to stay with me after class and we're going to learn some concentration techniques and talk about picking fights with other students." He seemed to have finished, but then his hand slapped his forehead and he continued. "Geeze, you think you would've learned by now, but you just have to make things difficult for me. Remember Naruto, right after class."

Time passed and eventually it was time for everyone to go home. Everyone, except Naruto. Iruka made sure of that by dragging Naruto by his collar to his desk. "Hey! Come on, I wasn't going to ditch out!"

Iruka seemed to be developing that same twitch in his eye as before. "Yeah right… Just last week you tried to get out of cleaning up mess you made outside of my classroom, but not this time."

I stuck up my nose at Naruto and Akamaru let out a disapproving bark. Deciding that neither of us wanted to be there any longer, we left, Akamaru sitting comfortably in my hood. He wasn't worth the time of day, or the effort it took to discipline him. Boy, I would hate to be Iruka at anytime, because being him meant spending countless hours with an egotistical Genin who couldn't even perform a proper Dopple Ganger.

Hinata was waiting for me outside, pressing her fingers together in a typical fashion. She smiled and waved. "Hello Kiba-kun."

I grinned and waved back. " 'Ello Hinata. Come on, let's get out of here. I can't stand to hear that loudmouth for another minute."

My last comment seemed to have Hinata taken aback a little. "Please Kiba-kun, don't talk about Naruto like that. He really is a nice person."

I'm not sure how much I could agree with her on that, but I decided that I would be nicer to him around Hinata, but when she wasn't around, he was fair game. "All right Hinata, I'll be nicer to him."

Hinata put on a week smile and nodded. "Thank you, Kiba-kun."

A sigh escaped my lips. The things I did for that girl. Being nicer to Naruto, what a thought. I could barely put up with the kid, and now I had to be nice to him? Not what I wanted to do for the remainder of school.

My mind swam in an endless train of thought. I needed something to get my mind off the day. Finally, I decided on the perfect way to distract me from my thoughts, especially those of Naruto. "Hinata, would you like to go train?"

She seemed to have been in a daze too, because the mention of training caused Hinata jerk her head upwards and look at me. "T-training? Okay, if you want to."

She didn't seem too enthusiastic, but as long as she was willing, that was good enough for me. Akamaru jumped from my hood and began to walk with us. We turned down the next road to a field that was home to many targets, and many tree stumps.

I ran out into the middle of the field and quickly drew three kunais from my pouch and threw them all at different targets. The air around them whistled as the three kunais made their mark on all three bullseyes. Regaining my posture, I flicked a finger under my nose. "Not bad, not bad."

Akamaru wagged his tail, barking with admiration. He ran up and jumped into my arms, panting and barking madly.

"Ah, come on Akamaru, it was nothing." Yeah, I was trying to be modest, but how can you be so great and not brag about it? When people admire you so much, you have to pretend that anything you do takes little or no effort. My head turned when I heard Hinata clapping.

"Good job, Kiba, that was excellent." Her shy smile gleamed with happiness.

I started into a sprint and began running for one of the tree stumps. My legs coiled, then outstretched, launching me into the air. A crack of the wood sounded as my foot made contact with the stump. I stepped back to examine where I had made contact. There seemed to be very little damage to the tree, but I could see a crack and a small imprint of a foot where I had made contact. It was all right, I guess. I mean, not many people even chipped the bark off these things.

I prepared my stance, about to go for another round when I noticed that Hinata had not moved from the spot where she stood before. A confused look on my face, I walked over to where she was standing and tilted my head. "Hinata, aren't you going to train?"

Hinata looked away while rubbing her arm. "No Kiba, I don't feel like training right now. I'd rather go home and rest right now."

I should've slapped myself for being so inconsiderate. "All right Hinata, I'll walk you home." Akamaru barked obediently and hopped up on my shoulders.

She followed obediently, staying especially silent as we walked. Finally, when we were almost at her house, Hinata opened up her mouth and spoke her first few words in at least half an hour. "Kiba, why do you hate Naruto?"

I was a little taken aback from Hinata's question. Akamaru made what sounded like a chuckle from the back of my hood. It was true that I ridiculed, teased and constantly made fun of him, but I didn't hate him, not really... "I don't hate him exactly... He just really gets on my nerves. He's loud, obnoxious and egotistical."

Hinata seemed to be gathering courage for what she was going to say next. "Well... Kiba, you're that way sometimes," her face seemed to be going redder each second and she was losing confidence with every word that she spoke. "You"re always kind of loud, and you're not the most modest person..." her words were getting weaker, she looked like she was choking on what she had left to say. "And sometimes, you're even a bit obnoxious... especially to Naruto."

Hearing this coming from Hinata was probably the only reason that it actually knocked a bit of sense into me. "Hinata, I'm sorry. I didn't know you saw me like that."

Hinata averted her gaze, staring at the ground as she walked. "I just wish you would act a bit nicer to Naruto."

I really had to swallow some pride here. Acting nice to Naruto meant going against all that I'd said about about him, asking forgiveness for all that I'd done to him. I guess to avoid being the hypocrite and for Hinata's happiness, I'd have to restrain myself. "All right Hinata, I'll be nicer to Naruto, for you."

Hinata smiled weakly. "Thank you Kiba."

I nodded and placed my eyes on the road ahead. It was going to take a lot of patience trying to get used to that knucklehead. I guess after thinking off all the reasons that I should hate him, I should begin to think of all the reasons I should like him. I guess, even when he was being annoying proclaiming himself as the future, he was a pretty funny guy. His antics were amusing to say the least. Or maybe it was just the was that Iruka punished him. It was always fun to watch him squirm like a helpless rat.

It was decided. I was going to have to get to know Naruto a bit better if I was going to be able to stand him and keep my promise to Hinata. Maybe he wanted to go out for a bit of ramen...

"Kiba..." A hand touched my shoulder, causing me to snap out of my little daydream.

I turned a head slightly. "Yes Hinata?"

She giggled lightly and blushed a little. "We've been standing in front of my house for about ten minutes. Are you going to go home?"

Akamaru made that same sort of chuckling noise. I looked up and was shocked when I found that there was a house sitting right in plain view. "Oh, uhh..." I blushed, embarrased. "Yeah..." my hand reached up and scratched the side of my cheek, trying to hide my crimson cheeks. I figured it would probably be best if I took my leave as soon as possible. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow Hinata. And I promise I'll start acting nice to Naruto."

She said nothing else and waved her hand and walked inside her house. I merely stood there for a good while, still thinking of ways that I could use to help me understand and tolerate Naruto. Another ten minutes passed before I decided I should just go home and sleep on it. The sun was starting to set and I had a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. I turned and began walking home.

Akamaru barked annoyingly, making it very obvious that he was makikng fun of me and wasn't going to let it go for a while. "Shut up Akamaru... Just shut up."

The sun had almost slunk behind the horizon when I reached to steps to my humble abode. I opened the door and creaked it open. Mom stood in the kitchen, cleaning up what was left of dinner. "Sorry Kiba," she called. "You were late and we were all getting hungry. There's leftovers in the fridge if you haven't eaten all ready."

Leftovers. Oh well, I wasn't really hungry anyway. "It's okay Mom, we're not hungry." Akamaru barked in disapproval, but I ignored him for the time being. "I think I'm just gonna head to bed."

She didn't look up from the counter she was working at. Her lips only moved slightly. "All right. They'll be there when you get hungry."

Right. I had no intention of coming back downstairs until morning. It may have seemed a little strange, but I wasn't hungry. Aside from from figuring out how I was going to be nice to Naruto, my only thoughts were to go upstairs and head straight to bed.

I picked Akamaru up out of my jacket. "Go ahead. Eat if you want." He scampered off to the kitchen, not looking back.

I opened the door and stripped myself of my clothes, throwing it into a corner with the rest of my dirty clothes. My sanctuary; more like a dump. Clothes scattered everywhere, numerous things not picked up and my equipment laying on top of piles and dressers. I flopped down on the bed. It was probably the only thing that wasn't draped with clothes or miscellaneous junk. I laid there and waited for sleep to come and take me away. Until then, I was doomed to suffer with thoughts of that noisy ninja. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Only time would tell.

I could feel my eye lids getting heavy. Finally, I would get some rest. I wouldn't have to worry about a thing until tomorrow. Until tomorrow, I wouldn't have a care in the world.


End file.
